Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1887-04-28
VIEW roRx oAaIoArunIsrs.
Sketches OF senae oa the Fasnons
Funny Men.


Sketches OF sonae os the Fasnous
FuunY Men.
A contributor to the New York Mail
and Enpgess under the nom de plume Of
Julian Ralph, writes At the Salmsgundi
dinner she other night, amid so OF the
iolliest souls imaginable, one was far
more sprightly and vivacious than all the
rest. Il might not surprise every one to
hear that tins was E. w. Kemble Of the
Os7stssrg, one of the humorous artists OF
the day. But to one who knows the
dumb humorists Of the times-the men
who make fun in silence with their PEN
ciis--it was extraordinary. Humorists
are proverbially men of pathetic face and
sober nien, but of all the almost owlish
gravity ever knew among men these
pencil humorists hays the most. Take
| Mast and Keppler, the satiIists, for in
stance. It Is said that Keppler is es-
| teemed as a very bright talker in the Ger
man colony, but neither he nor Mast 10
funny or in any degree lively in English.
Both are about so, aud both have made
fortunes and are taking things easy.
Mast is drsssy, almost natty, |
little man, with face almost exactly |
like the pictures he makes OF himself. He |
is wrapped up in domestic Joys ct his |
l country upho III bSAAp - |
us got him on his feet at dinner in |
Montreal the other day, but he had moth |
ing to say. When he talks at all, which |
is in private, he does go extremely sensi-
bly,. Keppler is an oddly; he likes to
startle the town with unconventional
attire. He ia apt to stride through the
streets with high boots, worn outside OF
trousers SO patched as to suggest jersey
cloth, q bell-crowned, turn up German
silk hat, and Spanish cloak wound
round his body and thrown over one
| shoulder. He is O serious man, and
funny as his pictures in Puck often are
!. their purpose is always serious, He ia
most interesting when he talks of his
J past, particularly of the days when he
: was an employe at $15 week, making
: funny pictures for Frank Leslie, and he
} and Frank Leslie fell out over a Sc in
7 crease in his salary.
! Keppler announced his determination
to start a funny paper, and Leslie warned
, him that if he did he would start one
Just like it and drive him out of the bust
: ness. Keppler took Schwarmann, the
foreman of Leslie's printing office, and
they together, with OIL 500 in money,
started the German edition Of Puck. 1t
was success, and in year or two the
NAMED feeble bantling until Keppler
published in it startling picture OF o
scene on Fifth avenue, after the death of
fashionable abortionist. From that
day it has fourished. Now no such
pictures are published, both illustrations
and letter-press have grown very refined,
and yet the paper gained 1900 circula-
ton last year.
Look at some of the junior cartoonists.
Charles Jay Taylor, whose fun is always
original, piquant and elevating, looks as
sober as parson when he is producing
the funniest faces and situations on
paper. In company he is retiring and
quiet, and his wit only scintillates among
those who know him very intimately.
Taylor, by the way, is the only conspic.
uous one of his number who received al
art education. The rest educated them
selves. Sober as Taylor is, he is excelled
in this respect by Mr.. Zimmerman Of
Judge than whom the most timid CIR
could scarcely be more shy. Yet he car
be as audacious and rollicking with hi
pencil as ever William r. Travers wa
with his lips. He ia from the oentra
part of this state, and made his way up
ward from humble beginning. He i
still in the thirties.
Of California Forty. miner, and after
hard struggle attracted the interest O
Mark Twain, who got him TO illustrat
"Huckleberry Finn" and then intro
duced him TO Gable, the novelist, VIII
took him South. Through this he got o
the Century. While in the South he fe
q in love with the American eyed Africa
" as source of humor and any day one
apt to find him rooted in the street, roal
ing in laughter Mt some comical darke
passing by. As said, he is the only arti
ys: whose humor il externally visible.
er; is about 80 or 81. There was anothe
IA even livelier-the late j. A. Wales--a boz
Ter entertainer, but he was too social for h
~ own coed.
Frederick Opper, of Puck is roun
faced, meek young man with mild ert
eyes and contemplative habit, who Ba,
res funny things in his quiet, grave way,
he is obliged to, but much prefers
listen. He is closely related to
Blowit2 the Paris correspondent Of Il
London Times His sister is writer 81
/ gives him frequent assistance, though t
u1sl l6IIet feminlr lieutenant Al
nonst i. is the talented wife
NJ tlrlip II. M,.sh, the wittv dialoe
- writer of the Sun and Puck. Hor he
y explains both the quality and quantity
this wonderful workers productions
Oaricaturing in America has ma
enormous strides during the past
years. What artists call comics he
n IN appeared in our illustrated papers
with many years past, but no great geiius
49,. come to tho front. Mast end Keppler
n nsni both Germans, but no American
specially distinguished himself in this
) Of a any more than in painting. Europe, il
humiliating to confess it. is ahead of
A. in this respect. America has not
II produced Gilray, Hogarth, a Cru
La shank q Browne or even Du Mauri
We shall improve with age, and our
ing humorous artists are very prom
.TH ing lot.
In justice it must be added, howe,
that no humorist in the world is ever
solemn as Robert Burdette is when II
arrives in town just in time for
lecture. In such case he often
changes dress for travelling suit wi
in q passenger car, and it is when, with
u oyercoat over his lap, he takes off one
~ of trousers and puts on another that
AZ wears an expression as little humorou
Artemus Ward must have done when
szssat old Sbakeress embodied him in her q
St and exclaimed lyon arc mine.n
&1b - -
$Sl An appropriate name for On engii
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